Never agree to be a vox pop on Newsnight.
Ben Chu, the programme's economics editor, went to Bedford. One of the people he spoke to was the sister of an Italian-born baker. She supports Brexit.
Go to 8m 16s and just listen to the way Ben adds an incredulous tone of voice to the word 'immigration' when he says, "And Salvatore's sister Liz has come round to supporting Brexit on the grounds of tighter immigration control."
However already set up Salvatore and Liz's immigrant background, was he signalling to viewers that it's a bit rich for Liz to want immigration control? Why couldn't he just have said that without modulating the pitch of his voice to express surprise at her holding this point of view?
As 'the pub landlord' would say, "Ben Chu! Good British name!"
ReplyDeleteI’m pretty sure Geeta Guru-Murthy was up to something similar when interviewing members of the pubic who’d gone to Parliament Square to celebrate Brexit.
ReplyDeleteHer line of questioning was blatantly formulated to herd speakers into the ‘racist’ pen. But the speakers didn’t even seem to care. Maybe one day being called ‘racist’ wouldn’t mean instant ostracisation. "We’re all racists now!"
Ah, great minds...I was just working on that very thing.
DeleteWas she the lady noting how nearly the faces at the celebration were white...and of course the BBC never, ever noted how nearly all the faces at the "million plus" Remainer marches were white. They were the pasty face protests.
DeleteHad a convo recently with Martine Croxhall, when a live interview (as I discovered) was sampled for reposting on social media.
ReplyDeleteSeems the interviewee was lucid beforehand but not on air. I credit her for taking the trouble to set an attempted stirrer straight.
It however does raise other issues, like who does get selected, and why, even live, beforehand to suit the narrative.